Study Tools

Anthem

Ayn Rand

Analysis of Major Characters

Introduction & Author’s Preface

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.

The Primacy of the Individual

Equality 7-2521 realizes the significance
of his existence only when he comes to understand that one is the
center of one’s universe, and that one’s perception gives the world
its meaning. He struggles throughout Anthem with
his growing desire to spend time alone, to write for his own benefit
only, and to create at his own leisure and for his own purposes.
Only after his break with society, however, does Equality 7-2521 feel
his own strength and ability. Alone, Equality 7-2521 thrives,
even in the forest, where he initially expects to be destroyed by
beasts. In society, all the brothers are drained of their energy
and sapped of their creativity until they become shapeless, faceless
blobs made inarticulate by fear of rejection by the group. By contrast,
those characters capable of thinking on their own exhibit strength,
fearlessness, and self-assurance. In his final epiphany, Equality 7-2521 declares
his will the only edict he will obey and his happiness his only
goal.

Rand writes Anthem as a warning to those
who believe that collectivist societies, like the one whose birth
she witnessed in Russia early in the twentieth century, can ever
be successful. She warns that losing sight of the individual and
his or her needs will lead to the destruction of all progress and
all forward movement. Nevertheless, she believes that the individual
can never really be dominated—he or she will always resurface because
freedom is part of the human makeup. Rand believes that no matter
how hard society tries and how many people it kills in the name
of collectivism, the individual will still rise up and declare him-
or herself his or her own purpose.

The Value of Martyrdom

Martyrdom sets Equality 7-2521 apart
from the rest of society because, in Rand’s view, the willingness
to die for an ideal marks a hero and distinguishes him or her from
the rest of society. Indeed, when society martyrs a hero, the hero
feels nothing but joy at the discovery of his or her ideal. Thus,
when he is burned at the stake in front of Equality 7-2521,
the Transgressor of the Unspeakable Word shows no fear or pain,
only tremendous elation in his knowledge of the word that the rest
of society has forgotten. Likewise, when Equality 7-2521 is
beaten in the Palace of Corrective Detention for refusing to tell
his Home Council where he has been, he feels no pain, only joy that
he has not revealed the secret of the lightbulb. He even consents
to stay locked in his cell until it is time to break out and go
to the World Council of Scholars. In both cases, what matters to
the martyr is not the pain but the ideal, and the ideal is worth dying
for, as Equality 7-2521 observes in his meditations
in Chapter XII.

The Impotence of the Collective

The World Council of Scholars embodies one of the chief
evils of collectivism—the inability of a collective government to
come to a conclusion and take action on behalf of the society it
governs. Because consensus is impossible and individual thinking
forbidden, the council falls into inaction; since the council is
the ruling body of the society, society stops advancing. The World
Council of Scholars exemplifies the fear that controls group thinking.
Because the council members cannot all agree on technological advances,
even a simple innovation such as the candle takes a huge amount
of time and haggling to gain approval. Moreover, because consensus-building
is difficult and dangerous in a society in which discord is viewed
as a sin, the individuals on the council begin to fear any change
as a threat to themselves. For this reason, the council recoils
from Equality 7-2521’s lightbulb. Rand shows
that when absolute agreement is necessary for change, progress is
all but impossible.

Original Creation as a Component of Identity

For Rand, a man’s value rests in the originality of his
mind as expressed in his work, and the value of his work resides
in his personal investment in it, as in Equality 7-2521’s
invention of the lightbulb. Equality 7-2521 discovers
in his tunnel that the work of an individual’s hands is an extension
of the individual’s very self, and that the value of the product
of this work lies not in the product’s benefit for society but in
its own existence as the fruit of the individual’s imagination.
For this reason, Equality 7-2521 prefers
to be beaten into unconsciousness and then nearly starved to death
than to reveal the light he has invented. Furthermore, when the
World Council of Scholars rejects his light as useless, he tells
the council members to do what they will with his body, if only
they will accept the light. Last, when Equality 7-2521 and
the Golden One finally reach the house, his proprietary sense over
the building, which he refashions into a home for him and the Golden
One, is so strong that he is willing to defend it even to the death.
In each of these cases, Equality 7-2521 defends
his work and his property as extensions of himself because they
spring from him.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Fear

Fear in Anthem characterizes those social
lepers who do not have enough sense of themselves to understand
that each individual is the center of his or her universe. Rand’s
heroes, on the other hand, never fear anything. In Rand’s belief
system, the only thing man has to fear is his fellows, who will
weigh him down and sap his strength if given the opportunity. The
Golden One appeals to Equality 7-2521 because
she is unafraid, and she is attracted to him for the same reason.
By contrast, those in the Home of the Street Sweepers are so afraid
that they do not speak to each other at dinner or in the sleeping
hall. More generally, those in a society characterized by fear never
seek to make any progress or improve their own lives. They do not
show signs of individuality—they never exhibit vanity, pride, lust,
or preference for some people over others—because they value physical
safety over expressions of self.

Naming

In the society in Anthem, naming is a
form of identifying one’s possessions as one’s own. For this reason,
Equality 7-2521 names the Golden One on two
separate occasions, names himself, and searches relentlessly for
the word “I.” Rand alludes to the power of naming granted to Adam
in the Bible, where he is made master of the animals and they answer
to the names he gives them. Likewise, Rand’s heroes rename those
things that are dear to them. By contrast, those in society are
given numbers and social concepts as identifying tags, as yet another
way of stealing their individuality from them. For those in this
society, possession is not a possibility because all things are
owned by the collective, including their own bodies and identities.
Thus, when Equality 7-2521 renames the Golden One
and himself, he is declaring war on this philosophy and reclaiming
himself and her as individuals.

Shapelessness

Like fear, shapelessness in Anthem connotes
evil because it illustrates a lack of willingness or ability to
believe in something and to stand behind it. For Rand, the physical
world mirrors the internal, personal world, and physical shapelessness
goes hand in hand with fear and collectivity. Thus, the members
of the World Council of Scholars are all shapeless, as are the members
of the Council of Vocations. The entire society around Equality 7-2521 is
shapeless and gray, demonstrating its stagnation and worthlessness.
By contrast, the Golden One is hard, with sharply defined lines
and an overwhelming physical beauty. Similarly, International 4-8818 stands
out among his peers because he is taller and more shapely than they
are. Finally, Equality 7-2521 is reprimanded
by his teachers at an early age for growing to more than six feet
tall. The teachers, in keeping with the rigid norms of their society,
try to enforce a uniformity that leads to shapelessness. That Equality 7-2521 does not
fit in with this uniformity points him out as a true individual.

Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Light

Light represents truth in Anthem. Thus,
Liberty 5-3000 becomes the Golden One, and
Equality 7-2521 becomes Prometheus, the bringer
of light. Equality 7-2521’s contribution
to the world is his invention of the lightbulb, and the house he
and the Golden One find in the forest has windows to let in the
light. By contrast, the city is dingy and dark, and the only colors
are gray, white, and brown. The whole society lives by candlelight,
and the society’s leaders fear the light when Equality 7-2521 brings
it to them. Light illuminates human dignity and human error for
Rand, both of which the society in Anthem tries
to sweep under the rug. In the vast gray haze of this society, all
things are indistinct. Only when light is brought to bear can those
with exceptional qualities be differentiated from the crowd. Thus,
Equality 7-2521’s lightbulb makes him a harbinger
of tremendous social unrest at the same time that it helps him see
himself as the unique individual he really is.

The Forest

For Equality 7-2521, the state
of nature affords him the chance to live alone and sustained by
the work of his own hands, an opportunity he is denied in society.
Unlike society, which constrains what an individual can claim as
his own, the forest welcomes Equality 7-2521 and
provides him what he needs. The forest is also a connection between
the past and the future. In the forest, Equality 7-2521 and
the Golden One find a home—one of the only remnants of
the Unmentionable Times in the story. This home suits them, and
in it they discover their own natural states. The forest thus provides
them with a place to effect their own rebirth.

Manuscripts

In the society in Anthem, manuscripts
carry history and are sacred vessels for self-expression. The manuscripts
that Equality 7-2521 steals from the Home
of the Scholars are very important to him because they are his only
means of recording his private thoughts. Because he is accustomed
to believing that no thought is valid unless it is shared by the
entire community, his willingness to record his thoughts, to see
them as valuable, represents his first significant break with society.
The books he finds in his new forest home are also important to
him because they teach him the history of the old world’s destruction
and, most important, teach him the word “I.” This discovery concludes
Equality 7-2521’s search for individual expression
and allows him to think of himself as separate from the rest of
his peers. It also teaches him a deeply personal kind of pleasure,
both in the form of reading, which is itself a solitary activity
in his life, and in writing, which allows him to speak so that only
he can hear. Equality 7-2521’s obsession
with his manuscripts, then, reflects a deep-seated need to escape
the prying eyes of the society around him and to realize his full
potential as an individual.